When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Austin high schoolers Sarah Zeng and Alice Huang faced canceled summer plans, the challenges of remote learning, and a community struggling to combat the effects of coronavirus. The two childhood friends and avid bakers created a small cookie business to cheer people up with homemade treats while donating 80% of proceeds to All Together ATX for COVID relief. Zeng and Huang's business, Dough Re Mi Cookie Co, has since donated upwards of $3,000 for COVID Relief in the Austin community. Zeng, 16, and Huang, 15, bake and deliver classic cookies and dog treats, rotating specialty recipes into the mix every month. Customers can buy cookies for themselves or send them as a sweet surprise for someone else with a customizable message card.  


"Our mission was to bring together the community at a time of stress and anxiety. It's really amazing when we go out to deliver every Saturday, people smile at us through their windows and are really excited."  


Word of these cookies for a cause quickly spread on social media, with the help of mouth-watering photos of Zeng and Huang's baked goods and clever TikTok videos that highlight the founders' creativity and social mission. 


We discuss:


- How Dough Re Mi is giving back to their community  


- Lessons learned from starting a business while still in high school 


- How Dough Re Mi grew their social media presence via TikTok  


- Advice for young entrepreneurs 


You can follow Dough Re Mi on Instagram and shop the Dough Re Mi Site.


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